All posts tagged Paranormal Activity

“Paranormal Activity” is back. A trailer for the sequel to the hit horror film, “Paranormal Activity 2,” has hit the web. The new clip borrows from the first film’s playbook–lots of home video, surveillance type footage, cut in with clips of audiences freaking out to the terror on the screen. The trailer boasts that “nothing can prepare you” for the next movie, but Speakeasy is fairly confident that watching the first installment of the film will pretty much get you ready. Here’s the clip. Read More »

Pity the poor films that were released on DVD and Blu-Ray disc today. Much of the country is still on holiday and not exactly paying attention to any of the new releases hitting stores — especially when audiences are seeing new release films in theaters in droves and/or directing their shopping dollars to the sales racks. Not that today’s releases are anything to get excited about: 2009′s little horror movie that could, “Paranormal Activity,” gets the DVD and Blu-ray treatment, but given the low-fi quality of the notoriously cheap to produce film, does it really even matter? Other new releases include the animated feature “9,” Diablo Cody’s underwhelming “Juno” follow-up “Jennifer’s Body,” the horror flick “The Perfect Getaway,” and the first season of “The United States of Tara,” a Showtime series written by… Diablo Cody (do we sense a theme here)? The only new set worth a second look is “Glee: Season One, Vol. 1: Road to Sectionals,” which is chockablock with extra featurettes — not too shabby, considering that the season is only half-way over. But given that viewers may still have the last few episodes of the a capella Fox series saved on their DVRs, are theyready for another dose of “Glee” quite so soon? Read More »

The studio’s ultra low-budget thriller, “Paranormal Activity,” took the top spot at the box office this weekend, grossing an estimated $22 million and beating out the latest installment in Lionsgate’s long-running horror franchise, “Saw VI.”

Paramount’s chairman, Brad Grey, says the $15,000 film is the most profitable movie in the studio’s modern-day history. “Obviously, it’s a bit of a miracle,” he says, noting that Paramount’s production, marketing, and distribution teams have worked hard to make the film succeed.

In its fifth weekend at the multiplex, “Paranormal” has grossed more than $62 million domestically and continued to draw new fans, especially among Hispanics. That’s a big figure for a film that has played in such limited release. The film played at fewer than 2,000 locations this weekend—but will expand further for Halloween. Read More »

“Where the Wild Things Are,” the adaptation of Maurice Sendak’s classic storybook by indie-director Spike Jonze, exceeded expectations to pull in $32.5 million during its opening weekend, performing more like an adult film than a children’s movie.

Ticket sales for Warner Bros.’ “Wild Things” rose just 2% from Friday to Saturday, a pattern normally hewed to by adult films, even though “Wild Things” is rated PG and based on one of the most famous pieces of children’s literature. Family films, on the other hand, tend to receive a boost from Saturday matinees. Had “Wild Things” performed more like a children’s movie, it may have grossed closer to $40 million. Warner Bros. says the film cost less than $80 million, but reports have placed the budget closer to $100 million.

Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. knew that the movie appealed to older audiences and spent 70% of its marketing budget on advertising aimed at adult, mainstream audiences. “We saw it as an adult film with strong interest from families as well,” says Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. “We weren’t quite sure how it would perform, but we were hoping it would break through to an adult audience, which a lot of family films cannot do.” Read More »

Today it became obvious that “Paranormal Activity” is going to be one abnormal movie, and it hasn’t even opened nationally.

It’s common for studios to take horror flicks and give them midnight screenings, try to build viral buzz on Twitter. But “Paranormal Activity” seems to be something way bigger as a social-network marketing phenomenon: it grossed $7 million in just 144 theaters over the weekend for a huge per-screen average, and Paramount has mounted a guerrilla marketing campaign stressing how the movie was shot on hand-held camera with no stars, a no-name director and a rock-bottom budget. Now it’s primed, the studio hopes, to become the next “Blair Witch Project.”

But that blockbuster-from-nowhere came out a decade ago, before social media had exploded and when Internet users could still fall for the movie’s “found footage” campaign. “That was done effectively but that day has passed,” said Megan Colligan, co-president of marketing at Paramount. “The key for us was not to be too gimmicky with any of it.”

So Paramount is carefully trying to nurture and manage the buzz, to make fans feel like it’s their own grass-roots, word-of-mouth phenomenon, but not to be “too cute,” she added. Paramount says that this Friday, it will increase its number of locations more than fivefold. Read More »

Couples Retreat Rebuts Bad Reviews: Despite a critical drubbing, ”Couples Retreat” grossed $35 million at the box office. Industry insiders attribute it to little competition this weekend, though the Hollywood press junket might have helped with the publicity effort this time, too. This one wasn’t held in some hotel in Burbank; the producers flew dozens of journalists to Bora Bora, where the film takes place, for interviews with Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and other cast members. Not bad for a recession. [LA Times]

…And “Paranormal” Breaks Record: Meanwhile, in an opening being compared to “The Blair Witch Project,” the small, low-budget “Paranormal Activity” from Paramount grossed $7 million in just 160 theaters. That’s a new record for a film in fewer than 200 theatres, with a per-screen average of $44,163. [Hollywood.com]

Jackson Single Leaked Early: Michael Jackson’s posthumously-released single “This is It” was leaked across the Internet yesterday before its official release today via his Web site. The song included the lyrics, “This is it/Here I stand/I’m the light of the world/and I feel grand,” certainly written to herald his planned comeback. The two-disc album of the same name will be released October 26. [CNN]

Moses! the Movie: Former News Corp CEO Peter Chernin has picked the first major film project for his new production company: the Bible’s Story of Moses. It’ll take visual cues from the historical epic “300″ and, unlike Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ,” is likely to be in English, not Aramaic. [Variety] Read More »

Palin Gets “Rogue” Book Deal: Sarah Palin’s absence from center stage since leaving the governorship is about to end. She’s been hunkered down in San Diego with a writing collaborator, then in New York working with editors. She has finished her 400-page memoir, “Going Rogue: An American Life,” which will be published Nov. 17, months earlier than planned and timed to take advantage of the holiday book-selling season. Can we expect a lot of media appearances to promote the book? You betcha. [AP]

“Paranormal” Expansion: Paramount is giving the micro-marketing treatment to “Paranormal Activity,” the fake documentary about a haunted house. The studio is painstakingly laying the groundwork for what it hopes will be a “Blair Witch”-like cult hit. So far so good. The film sold out a couple dozen midnight screenings across the U.S. last weekend, grossing $15,000, which happens to have been the entire production budget of the film. With positive word of mouth, execs plan to double the screen count next weekend [Reuters]

Spears Reveals New Single: Now that Britney Spears has completed her “Circus” tour (which culminated with the singer giving a lap dance to Lance Bass), she has moved on to publicize her new album, “The Singles Collection,” which comes out in time for the holidays on Nov. 24. A new song from the album, “3,” premieres on the radio today. [Rolling Stone]

Bad Reviews for Hoffman’s “Othello”: Despite all the buzz surrounding the current off-Broadway production of “Othello,” where Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Iago against a post-modern backdrop, critics have rebelled against director Peter Sellars’s experimental interpretation. They still like Hoffman as Iago, though. [LAT]

Warner Music Enters YouTube Deal: Since pulling all its music from YouTube last year, Warner Music has been talking to the video sharing site about a more satisfying arrangement for both parties. Not only will some music from Warner’s library become available on YouTube, but Warner also plans on working with the soon-to-launch music video site Vevo to post content there as well. [Advertising Age via Pitchfork] Read More »

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.